The invention relates to a method and a device for destroying drifting sea mines.
Drifting sea mines are moored mines that have been set adrift by the tearing or uncontrolled separation of their wire cable or chain from the anchor or mine base. Prerequisites for destroying these uncontrollably drifting sea mines include detecting and identifying them, and determining their position. This is effected, for example, with the use of sonar systems on specially-equipped ships, optronic viewing devices and visual observations. The drifting sea mines are destroyed through bombardment, by underwater drones or by the application of a destructive charge. A disadvantage of this type of destruction is the high cost of bombarding these sea mines, or the possibility that the mines will only be damaged, and not destroyed, meaning that dangerous ballast remains in the water. Moreover, the application of a destructive charge, for example by a diving apparatus, is both time-consuming and extremely dangerous.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,689,086 describes a cleanup system for cleaning up or clearing away simulated moored mines. A resilient latching shackle dropped from a ship is wound around a wire or a chain that connects the moored mines to an anchor or mine base. Two separate cables, to which the latching shackle is mounted, and two LFDs (Lateral Force Devices) are positioned around the moored mine, and prevent it from slipping out. Afterward, the moored mine is raised, with the anchor base, and taken on board. This system cannot be used to clear away drifting sea mines.
The use of underwater drones to clear away moored mines is described in an article entitled "Minenbekampfung [Combating Mines]" from the periodical "wt," No. 10/3/80, pp. 66 and 67. For locating the mine, a reference buoy is dropped into the water and the mine-searching sonar on the ship scans a strip approximately 350 m wide and 40 m in front of the device. After the mines have been located, or an underwater object resembling a mine, such as a land mine, has been located, an underwater drone to which, among other things, a camera is secured, is guided to the mine, and the camera is used to identify the mine. Guided solely by the sonar screen, the underwater drone subsequently places a charge, that will destroy the mine, next to the identified object. The underwater drone is then guided back to the ship and hauled onto the deck so the charge can be detonated. This underwater drone, however, can only be used to destroy sand-filled or grounded moored mines, not to clear away drifting sea mines.
Therefore, the need exists for a method and a device with which drifting sea mines can be successfully located and safely destroyed.